Although Brute Force's first album was preceded by plenty of credits as a songwriter and musician in the mainstream end of the pop/rock business, it was way more eccentric and far less commercial than the records with which he'd been previously involved. While strong traces of New York pop/rock production and composition could be heard in the songs, here the tunes were presented as if they'd been written for some offbeat off-Broadway musical. His lyrics were, to say the least, odd observations on the vicissitudes of love, the then-modern world, and simply ridiculous scenarios like sitting on a sandwich. All were delivered in his acquired-taste-at-best sardonic-comic vocals, again with a theatrical feel, as if he were a character in a musical compensating for his lack of conventional vocal chops with a hammy personality. It's attracted some cult followers, but it will irritate some listeners as well, not being nearly as catchy or intelligent as the satirical rock of (say) the Mothers of Invention, and not really being funny enough to even make the cut for heavy rotation on most novelty radio program playlists. The 2010 CD reissue adds three previously unreleased outtakes from the sessions in a similar vein, as well as his semi-legendary late-'60s single "King of Fuh"/"Nobody Knows." "King of Fuh," issued on Apple, was notorious for its then-risqué use of the phrase "the fuh king"; "Nobody Knows" was his own version of his composition "Nobody Knows What's Goin' On (In My Mind But Me)," a small mid-'60s hit for the Chiffons. ~ Richie Unterberger